Puskás documentary to premiere next week

"Puskas Hungary", a documentary on the greatest ever Hungarian soccer player, will premiere in Budapest on March 12, filmmakers told reporters in Budapest on Wednesday.

Ferenc Puskas (1927-2006) was probably the best-known Hungarian in the world in the second half of the 20th century, a prolific scorer who captained Hungary's legendary Golden Team of the early 1950s who went on to establish a brilliant international career at Real Madrid.

"I wanted to present Puskas as a man because he has so far been mostly portrayed as a soccer player. His life story and journeys overlap the turning points of Hungarian, European and global history, including the Second World War, the deportation of ethnic Germans of Hungary, the 1956 revolution and Janos Kadar's rule," said Tamas Almasi, the film's director.

Those remembering Puskas in the 116-minute documentary include Sir Alex Ferguson, Franz Beckenbauer, Michel Platini, one-time Real Madrid teammates Alfredo Di Stefano, Raymond Kopa and Jose Santamaria, surviving Golden Team members Gyula Grosics and Jeno Buzanszky, Puskas's widow and sister, the housekeeper of his Spanish home, and the owners of his favourite Spanish restaurant.

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